Presidential Powers Are Vast In Time Of War

January 12, 1991|By AARON EPSTEIN Knight-Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON — During World War I and its aftermath, President Wilson operated the nation's railroads, seized telephone and telegraph companies, prohibited liquor sales, regulated consumer prices, censored the press and the mails and prosecuted strikers, profiteers and radicals.

In World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt seized industries vital to the war effort and threatened by labor disputes, controlled prices, regulated labor and industries, and imprisoned 120,000 Japanese-Americans regardless of their loyalty or citizenship.

In wartime, a president has complete battle command of U.S. military forces and enormous powers over persons and property. Should the Persian Gulf crisis erupt into war, President Bush could put into effect as many as 470 statutes triggered by the national emergency he already has declared.

Without asking Congress for further authorization, Bush could, for example:

1. Imprison people he considers threats to national security.

2. Restrict travel of Americans to certain nations and of some foreigners to the United States.

3. Require Iraqis or others associated with them - including foreign representatives - to register with the U.S. government.

4. Fix wages and prices.

5. Remove federal workers considered to be threats to national security.

6. Withhold information from Congress and censor the flow of communications between the United States and other nations.

7. Seize industries failing to comply with government orders for goods.

8. Declare martial law and suspend writs of habeas corpus, which is the constitutional guarantee against illegal detention and imprisonment.

Bush already has frozen Iraqi assets, barred trade with Iraq and given the U.S. government top priority for "prompt delivery of food, energy, civil transportation" and "all other articles and materials ... for the exclusive use of the armed forces ... in the interest of national security."

His administration has already set up rules for press and broadcast coverage of the Persian Gulf.

In the past, wartime emergencies have continued long after the wars ceased. Christopher N. May, professor at Loyola Law School of Los Angeles, noted in a recent book that World War II was not formally terminated until 1951, six years after the surrender of Japan. The Korean War emergency lasted until 1978 - 25 years after the truce.

But under the National Emergencies Act of 1976, Congress may terminate an emergency by passing a joint resolution. If the president vetoes it, a two-thirds vote of both houses of Congress is required to override the veto.